How do you see the human heart?
In 1953, Dr. John H. Gibbon performed the first successful open heart surgery.
Dr. Gibbon was a surgeon in Philadelphia and he was one of many doctors around the country working on a way to operate on the human heart.
At this point in history, doctors were becoming more and more aware of conditions within the heart and believed there were ways to repair the human heart but there was one problem that seemed insurmountable and unsolvable.
In order to operate on the human heart you would need to stop the heart and lungs in order to do the surgery and the repairs needed to save lives, but no one could survive without their heart pumping blood and their lungs oxygenating their blood.
Unless… unless there were another way to keep the blood pumping and oxygenated.
Dr. Gibbon collaborated with IBM to create a machine that would do just that and in 1953, he performed the first successful open heart surgery.
He thought he had figured out how to see the human heart and heal the human heart. However, only one of his first four patients survived. Because of that, he stopped performing open heart surgery.
These days, open heart surgery is common, and while it is always serious many procedures are often considered “routine.”
But in 1953 Dr. Gibbon had done something no one had ever done before. He had seen the human heart inside a living human body.
Only God Can See the Human Heart
We can’t see the human heart without performing open heart surgery.
Even with the recent advances in medicine and the high success rate these days of open heart surgery we can’t see what’s on the human heart, what’s inside the human heart, what is weighing on someone’s heart, or what make’s someone’s heart smile, or what has made someone’s heart hard.
But God can.
God can see what’s on our hearts, in our hearts, what’s heavy on our hearts, what fills our hearts with joy and what has jaded our hearts and hardened our hearts.
While open heart surgery is a relatively new innovation and often a life saving intervention, the human heart is more than a muscle that beats and pumps blood through our bodies.
The human heart is the seat of emotions, it’s the soul of a person, the inner man, the inner woman, it’s something only God can see and ultimately something only God can judge.
The human heart is something only God can heal, fill, restore, renew, refresh… truly, only God knows the heart of a person.
The good news is that God can see our hearts, God can fill our hearts, and if we’re willing, God can shape our hearts after His own heart.
Truthfully, we can’t see the human heart, but God can.
We see this in the life of David.
Kings Rise & Kings Fall
The first time we read about David is in 1 Samuel 16. Before David killed Goliath, before he became a king, before he became famous David was just a regular guy. He was underrated and overlooked by everyone, even his own father. He was the youngest, not the oldest. He was the last born, not the first born. He was the smallest, not the biggest. He was forgotten in a field tending his father’s sheep when God sent a prophet named Samuel to find him.
Here’s how the story unfolds…
1 Samuel 16.1-13
1 Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.”
At this point in the story… Saul, who was the first king of Israel, is on the way out. He doesn’t know he is on the way out yet, but he is.
Israel had begged God for a king and God honored their request.
Saul looked like the kind of king they wanted. He was head and shoulders taller than everyone else. He was from a wealthy family. And when Saul became king of Israel, Israel became like the other nations around them. Which, by the way, is exactly what they wanted.
Samuel had anointed Saul as king over Israel, but Saul had turned away from God.
And this grieved Samuel. Just like it grieved God.
Israel had a king like the other kingdoms around them. But kings rise and kings fall.
At this point in the story, the time has come to anoint a new king. Someone from Bethlehem. A son of Jesse. So God sends Samuel on another assignment to anoint and appoint another king.
A Covert Operation
2 But Samuel asked, “How can I do that? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”
Samuel knows, he may be a prophet but Saul is king. And kings kill people who threaten their power. This is the way the world works.
Samuel has a holy calling but he also has to consider his political reality. Anointing a new king while the current king is alive and well is not safe. This is a dangerous mission, should he choose to accept it.
But God has an idea. A cover story for Samuel…
“Take a heifer with you,” the Lord replied, “and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you which of his sons to anoint for me.”
4 So Samuel did as the Lord instructed. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town came trembling to meet him. “What’s wrong?” they asked. “Do you come in peace?”
The elders of the town are smart enough to know, if Samuel is here, something must be up, something might be wrong. If you back up one chapter you can read about a sharp disagreement between the prophet Samuel and king Saul. And the elders of Bethlehem don’t want any trouble in their small town.
So they ask… “Do you come in peace?”
5 “Yes,” Samuel replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then Samuel performed the purification rite for Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice, too.
Now that Samuel has made a sacrifice to the LORD, and they have barbecued the meat, it’s time to eat. It’s time for the meal. But before the meal Samuel wants to anoint the son of Jesse, the one God has predetermined to be the next king of Israel.
Jesse and his sons arrive, so Samuel is ready to get this done before anyone realizes why he really came to Bethlehem today.
What Does God Look For in a King?
6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!”
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him.
You might think Samuel would have learned his lesson by now.
Eliab was just like Saul in terms of outward appearances. Tall, good looking, strong… he fit the bill. He looked like a king!
But things have not gone well with Saul as king, are we really going to make the same mistake twice? Maybe it’s not about good looks and how tall you are!
God tells Samuel…
“Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him.”
And then He says…
“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
The LORD looks at the heart. hang onto that, we’ll come back to that idea in a few minutes.
8 Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “This is not the one the Lord has chosen.” 9 Next Jesse summoned Shimea, but Samuel said, “Neither is this the one the Lord has chosen.” 10 In the same way all seven of Jesse’s sons were presented to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” 11 Then Samuel asked, “Are these all the sons you have?”
You can just imagine how exhausted and exasperated Samuel is at this point in the story.
He’s traveled all day from Ramah to get here to Bethlehem. He’s on a top secret mission. Everything he’s doing is cloak and dagger. He’s hoping Saul doesn’t discover what he’s up to on this road trip.
He thought God would have chosen the firstborn son of Jesse, but He didn’t. Jesse has paraded seven sons in front of Samuel, and Jesse doesn’t really know what this is about either, but whatever Samuel is looking for he hasn’t found it. Seven sons come face to face with Samuel but none of them are the one that God has chosen.
So he asks, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.”
The Differences Between Saul & David
Don’t miss this… when Samuel found Saul, Saul was out looking for his father’s lost donkeys. Donkeys that he was unable to find on his own.
When Samuel is searching for David, he is tending his father’s sheep.
Saul was incapable of herding donkeys. David is a good shepherd who we later discover protected his father’s sheep from the lion and the bear.
When Samuel announced Saul publicly as king of Israel, Saul was literally hiding behind a stack of luggage (1 Samuel 10.23).
When Samuel prepares to announce David privately as the next king of Israel, David is found with the sheep he was chosen to shepherd.
“Send for him at once,” Samuel said. “We will not sit down to eat until he arrives.”
12 So Jesse sent for him. He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes.
And the Lord said, “This is the one; anoint him.”
13 So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah.
It’s here, in 1 Samuel 16, that David is anointed in an intimate ceremony with just his family as the next king of Israel.
David is anointed privately. Chosen but not announced. God was working when no one was looking.
Let me say all that again so you don’t miss how important this is…
David is anointed privately. Chosen but not announced. God was working when no one was looking.
It won’t be until 2 Samuel chapter 2, after the death of Saul, that David will become king. It is some 30 years later, after his initial anointing and calling, that David becomes king. First he becomes king over Judah, and then after a civil war, he becomes king over all of Israel.
Did You Know?
Did you know that God can choose you, anoint you, appoint you, and still require you to wait?
And why does God require you to wait? Why did God require David to wait?
Because, we can’t see the human heart. But God can.
And God knows, it takes time to prepare your heart for His purpose.
Even though David had been anointed and appointed, he still needed to be prepared for the position God was ultimately calling him into.
And even though you have been chosen as a child of God, called to do great things for God, you still need to be prepared for the position God is ultimately calling you into.
We live in a world where people would rather skip the preparation, the hard work of becoming, and just fast forward to the good stuff. No one wants to take the stairs anymore. No one wants to wait in line. Or wait for their turn. Put in the hard work. Do the preparation when no one is looking.
But it takes time to prepare your heart for God’s purpose.
God wanted David to become the next king of Israel, but that becoming would be a process that would take some 30 years before he ever wore a crown.
Preparing When No One Is Looking
David didn’t know what he was preparing for.
He didn’t know when he was tending his father’s sheep in a shepherd’s field outside of Bethlehem from the lion and the bear that one day he would use those same skills to protect God’s sheep, the people of Israel, from a giant named Goliath.
All those hours of target practice at trees when no one was looking, fending off predators from his father’s sheep prepared him to slay the giant that threatened God’s people.
David didn’t know that all those hours he spent in the quiet, all alone in the wilderness, chasing down a lost lamb or hiding in caves from king Saul when he was trying to kill him, that those melodies he was humming and those lyrics he was writing would one day become the song book of worship for all Israel and for Christians all around the world.
He didn’t know the psalms would be preserved through centuries, sung in churches, recited at funerals, and prayed by others.
David didn’t know what he was preparing for, or what God was preparing him for.
But you are ALWAYS PREPARING for you KNOW NOT WHAT.
David didn’t know he was training to kill Goliath.
Or write a song book.
Or shepherd God’s people.
Or become a king.
What is God preparing you for?
Are you preparing your heart? Are you preparing or are you procrastinating?
Are you wasting your time, your energy, your money, and your talent on things that will not matter 100 years from now?
You never know what hangs in the balance of your decision to prepare when no one is watching.
What could God do through you if you were preparing for you know not what?
What can’t God do through you because you were never preparing for you know not what?
David’s preparation in the shepherd’s field cultivated within him the right heart, the right skills, the right faith, dependance on the right relationship with God that was the foundation for his future.
We can’t see the human heart. But God can.
What does God see when he looks at your heart?
Linda’s Story
Linda Stout was a five year old girl from North Dakota who had a heart defect. Without surgery, she would die.
But on March 22, 1955, she received a life saving surgery. You see, on March 22, 1955, another doctor by the name of Dr. John Kirklin performed the first open heart surgery with a new heart-lung bypass machine developed from Dr. Gibbon’s machine.
With Dr. Gibbon’s permission and IBM’s cooperation, the Mayo clinic was able to take the blueprints for the first machine, adapt it, and create new ways to stabilize patients in ways that had never been done before.
Linda later said, “I realize Mayo took a chance with me as their first patient. If I had one thing to say, it would be thank you for taking that chance.”
When the doctors looked at her heart, they saw a defect. They saw a heart that needed healing. And they were able to perform a surgery that healed her heart.
What does God see when he looks at your heart?
Years ago, before Alisha and I had kids, there was some concern over Alisha’s heart. Just to let you know, she’s fine. But when doctors had some concerns they sent her to a cardiologist who put her on a heart monitor.
You know how this works, they connect these sensors to you and there’s a device that monitors and records what’s happening with your heart. That’s how doctors can see how things are going with your heart.
I just wonder, if you were hooked up to a heart monitor that could tell us how things are going with your heart, with your spiritual heart, your soul, what would it say?
How are things with your heart?
Remember what God told Samuel…
“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
What does God see when he looks at your heart?
What did God see when he looked at David’s heart?
Did he see perfection or failure?
Did he see the giant slayer or the womanizer?
Did he see the honorable king or the bloodthirsty warrior?
Did he see the sinner or the saint?
The shepherd, a song writer, a friend, a warrior, a dancer, a sinful man, or a man who was after the heart of God?
The truth is, he saw it all.
And he sees your heart, too.
And while everyone else is looking at the outward appearance, while everyone else is counting trophies and successes, measuring the square footage of your house and counting the number of cars, while everyone else is looking at vacation destinations and job titles, degrees and all the rest, God is looking at your heart.
And God is preparing your heart.
God is Preparing Your Heart
For what?
I don’t know.
But I do know that if you allow God to prepare your heart, you’ll be ready when your name is called to do what only you can do for God.
To lead, to love, to serve, to slay giants, to worship, to make a difference in this world for the glory of his name.
You see God looks at the heart.
Your heart may be revealed under the spotlight, but it is formed in the dark.
In the quiet places and spaces when no one is looking and no one is watching.
What do you need to do this week to prepare your heart for God’s purpose?
What if you decided to be faithful to the task before you now, whatever it is? Even if you can’t see or possibly imagine where it might lead?
We can’t see the human heart. But God can. And it takes time to prepare your heart for His purpose.
Remember, God blesses our faithfulness. God blesses our obedience. God blesses our faith. Our Trust. Our Courage. Even when it doesn’t make sense on paper. (*Especially when it doesn’t make sense on paper.)
God often chooses the unlikely. The unknown. The overlooked, the last one anyone expected him to use to become and to do great things.
We are always preparing for we know not what. The Lord looks at the heart. Let’s prepare our hearts for His purposes.
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